I definitely didn't want to be fumbling around looking for stuff while this high dollar engine was dangling on a cherry picker, so I spend a while cleaning up the shop and repositioning stuff prior to starting this project. Swept the shop, etc.

First things first; You can't get the legs of a normal cherry picker under the pallet that these engines are typically shipped on. This leads to all sorts of creative ways to hoist the pallet up high enough that you can get everything positioned.

In my case, Lycoming had shipped my engine with the bottom of the cardboard box reinforced with 2x4s and then that was on top of a 6" tall beaver puke pallet. I was able to grab it by each corner individually and heave it up an inch or so and slide it far enough onto the outrigger legs of my cherry picker that I could get it attached to the boom.

The liner bag has been sealed since I took delivery, and I kept an eye on the humidity sensor in the bag. Thanks to Lycoming's storage/pickling process which includes not only engine preservative oil, but also a sealed low humidity shipping bag and 4 lbs of desiccant, it was completely dry in the bag. You can see in the before/after pictures below that the sensor started turning pink within about 12 hours of being exposed to ambient December air here in Kansas.

On the IO360, everybody says that you should install the oil pressure fitting prior to hanging the engine because you can't get it in past the engine mount after. In retrospect, I don't think that's an issue on the IO390, because it seems like the accessory case is different.

Anyway, I had previously found the Vans RV14 engine install document online and had printed it out, including the position and orientation of all the fittings coming off the accessory case. I installed the oil pressure restrictor elbow prior to hanging the engine just in case, but I held off on all the rest. It would sure have been nice to get all those fittings installed while it was just sitting there, but I'm unsure of how they should be clocked until I can see what the hose routing looks like, so they will have to go in after the fact.

The top two isolators and bolts went in without much trouble, and the lower right one wasn't really much worse. The lower left one was tougher. I struggled with it for about an hour last night before I ran out of time, but finally got after about an hour today.

What ended up working was having all 3 other ones bottomed out, lifting with the cherry picker a bit, and then utilizing a drift pin made from a hardware store bolt to help shift the isolator into alignment.

Warning- I see online builder logs and tutorials that show people getting these started and then screwing them in. Don't do that! You can really screw up an engine case if you start cutting threads into the mounting holes in the case.

The nuts on these bolts only screw on so far before they bottom out on the spacers in the isolators, and I've heard people say just bottom them out and then safety them, but I believe that might be for a conical mount.

I've got a dynafocal mount, plus the mounting bolts that came from Vans have all metal lock nuts rather than being drilled for cotter pins. There is also a note on the print that says bottom out the spacers, then torque to standard AN7 values. There's no practical way to get a torque wrench on the nut on these. I checked drag torque at about 2 ft/lbs and compensated for that by torquing them to the high side of the range for an AN7 (40 ft/lbs).

One final warning about this- With the tail up on a tail stand and no wings or tail on, it's remarkably nose heavy. I can lift the tail spring easily with one hand and I believe in this configuration, the flywheel and a prop would absolutely put it over on it's nose.

I had previously strapped the tail to the stand and also weighed it down with 80 lbs of free weights tied to the tail spring. Even after I put the tail on the ground, I'll be keeping it weighed down until I get the wings and empennage back on it.